This document provides feedback from an observation of two English student teachers, Lucrecia Corral and Paola Nieto, conducting a lesson on healthy food in a 4th grade classroom. The observer notes that Lucrecia spent too much time copying on the board without engaging students. For Paola, it is suggested that she must call attention to students who misbehave. Both are advised to simplify activities and explanations to better facilitate student comprehension, ensure all students participate, and improve classroom management. Reflective questions at the end prompt the teachers to consider including role-plays, labeling games, and "Simon Says" to enliven future lessons.
2.
I would like to start this report by making
same suggestions to you both. I think that
you should try to improve stages within you
class. For instance, Lucrecia, you started you
class by spending a lot of time copying on
the board and giving your back to students,
without talking to them or letting them know
you were going to copy. By doing this you are
losing connection with them, you are
probably appeared as if you fear or dislike
them and it is the worst attitude you can
adopt if you want to engage them in the class
and make your class an enjoyable one. In
order to try to get students engage and
motivated in class you may use colours,
songs, games, attractive pictures and
challenging activities. Whenever using
pictures these should be bigger and clearer
to the ones you used.
Concerning the role of the pedagogical
partner, Paola, if you stand next to one
student who is misbehaving and you do not
3. call her / his attention , she / he is likely to
believe that either you fear her / him and
consequently cannot control her / him; or
that either you do not care about her or his
misbehaving in class.
Concerning the use of the board, I think that
your students might lack the level of English
required to understand so many words and
phrases in L2 and that this might be
disengaging to them.
It is necessary to call your students”
attention when they are not listening to you
in class. And it is also necessary to generate
some resources so as to make your students
grasp word meaning in L2. You can for
instance, mime words or draw simple
drawings on the board.
Whenever you are teaching, you need to pay
attention to each and every student. In your
class, I observed that you tend to disregard
those students sitting at the back of the
4. room. Besides, it is important not to let
always the same students to participate.
It is crucial to explain activity instructions
properly and to make sure everyone has
understood before letting the students solve
the activity.
If I were you I would try to reduce the amount
and complexity of the activities used in class
so as to facilitate comprehension of L2 on
part of the students. Another aspect you
should into account is the purpose of the
activity you are using in class. Try to define
the purpose of your activities before
planning your lesson.
Unless you offer proper explanations, your
students are unlikely to understand the
contents you are trying them to learn. For
instance, you did not explain properly the
different group types. Or if you had dealt with
this topic before, you should have revised
the contents properly.
5. It was good that you used a chant to greet
students.
Taking into account the topic you are dealing
with, it is advisable to try to use relia in
class.
Reflective questions:
● Haven´t you thought of using a role play to
deal with the topic of healthy food?. Kind
of a Doc. /Pat. Interaction?
● What about designing an activity in which
you can make your students play and learn
at the same time?. For instance, running to
6. the board to stick the right label to classify
the different types of food
● Have you considered including simple
games such as “Simon says”?Which
games would you include?